Extracts

IN THE JUNGLES OF THE NIGHT: A NOVEL ABOUT JIM CORBETT

The killer stalks at night, when hearth fires have burned down to ash and embers, when the air is as still as the earth. Owls and nightjars have fallen silent. Bats return to their roosts. Even the insects, gorged with blood, settle into the torpor of darkness. Only the lisping river continues without pause, a black vein pulsing in the night. The killer makes her way through the forest without being seen, though her eyes penetrate the shadows and her ears are alert to the slightest sound. In the jungle, death assumes many shapes and guises but with the stealth of her approach, the whisper of her breathing …

BECOMING A MOUNTAIN: HIMALAYAN JOURNEYS IN SEARCH OF THE SACRED AND THE SUBLIME

The most important step toward becoming a mountain is to close the books that others have written and read only those texts imprinted upon rock and ice or in the forests and streams that cascade from above. In Mountains of the Mind, climber and historian, Robert MacFarlane describes “the great stone book” from which geologists draw conclusions about the origins of our planet, creation myths etched upon the land. Volumes of truth are shelved away in the mountains that reveal mysteries beyond our comprehension. And yet, these high places are linked to us with molecular affinity …

An owlet was calling somewhere in the shadows ahead. Manohar recognized the soft, hooting cry,which sounded like an invisible clock ticking steadilyin the fading twilight. Turning around, he retraced hissteps up the path. Manohar knew that he had come the wrong way.Dr Mukherjee and his friends must havegone in the other direction …